In another excellent collaboration, revered British actor Dirk Bogarde works under the masterful direction of Joseph Losey, soon after they had created the British film masterpiece ‘The Servant’ together.

Bogarde plays Captain Hargreaves, an army lawyer tasked with defending Private Hamp, portrayed brilliantly by Tom Courtenay of ‘Billy Liar’ and ‘Doctor Zhivago’ fame. Courtenay’s outstanding performance not only earned him the Best Actor award at the 1964 Venice Film Festival but also a much-coveted BAFTA nomination.

Joining this stellar cast were Leo McKern, known for his role as ‘Rumple of the Bailey’ and Barry Foster from Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Frenzy’.

‘King and Country’ transports viewers to the deathly backdrop of World War I, delving deep into the profound impact of war on the human psyche. This project marked the third collaborations between Losey and Bogarde, following the 1954 thriller ‘The Sleeping Tiger’ and the groundbreaking 1963 drama ‘The Servant’. They would pair up again for ‘Accident’ (1967), all of which were available in the Vintage Classics collection.

Crafted from the original camera negative preserved at the BFI, this stunning restoration offers audiences more than just a cinematic experience. It includes a brand-new interview with Tom Courtenay, complemented by an archive interview with the legendary Dirk Bogarde. Additionally, viewers can explore a captivating gallery of ‘Behind the Scenes’ film stills.

The heart of the story revolves around a young soldier, Hamp (Courtenay), who deserts his post during the most harrowing days of World War I. His desperate escape from the relentless barrage of guns and mud was driven by an overwhelming desire to return home. Captain Hargreaves (Bogarde), an aristocratic British Army lawyer, is called upon to defend Hamp before the unforgiving army tribunal. Desertion was a crime that carried the sentence of execution. Hargreaves’s efforts on Hamp’s behalf become increasingly impassioned and sincere.

‘King and Country’ is a gripping and emotionally charged exploration of the human condition in the face of the horrors of war and the brutality of bureaucracy. It is a cinematic masterpiece that continues to resonate with audiences. This restoration ensures that its impact will endure for generations to come.

Pre-order ‘King and Country’ from Studiocanal’s Vintage Classics range.

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Watching ‘The Sleeping Tiger’ now, it’s immediately clear that, for a British film of the era, it is a cut above much of the rest. From the opening sequence, in which Dirk Bogarde and his friend Harry Towb hold up a professional psychiatrist (Alexander Knox) at gunpoint, the movie is full of tension, atmosphere, and slick direction. The performances feel alive from the first minute, rather than coming to life part-way through as was so often the case. It feels like a work of art rather than a low-budget potboiler. The reason that the film is classy is that it is directed by Joseph Losey, who would go on to collaborate with Bogarde on memorable titles including ‘Accident’ (1967) and, best of all, ‘The Servant’ (1963). From the opening credits, you wouldn’t know that you were watching a Losey film as he had to keep a low profile owing to his Hollywood blacklisting.

Bogarde plays Frank Clemmons, a young middle-class man with an inquiring mind who has taken the wrong path into violent crime. After holding the psychiatrist Clive Esmond (Alexander Knox) at gunpoint in a failed mugging, Esmond takes the young man into his home for six months to try to break down his barriers and understand why he turned to criminality. In order to get through to him, Esmond has to show Clemmons no weakness or emotion, only patience. But it is a dangerous game to play, because when Esmond isn’t looking, Clemmons embarks on a mission to intimidate his housemaid Sally (Patricia McCarron) and seduce his wife Glenda (Alexis Smith). In the race against time for Esmond to achieve the professional distinction of a breakthrough with his patient, innocent young women face being mortally hurt.

The ebb and flow of the changing relationships within the Esmond household play out with a degree of predictability, but at the same time, ‘The Sleeping Tiger’ is full of satisfying twists and turns that keep the viewer guessing and on tenterhooks. The film is psychologically satisfying, too. Clemmons and Glenda have the measure of one another from the very start, and a simple exchange over the lighting of a cigarette is superficially hostile, but fraught with palpable sexual tension. It’s hard to know who to sympathise with. We see that Clemmons is a manipulative liar, and that in leading Glenda astray, she is betraying her husband and threatening her marriage. At the same time, it’s professional pride rather than adequate care and compassion for his wife that drives Esmond to willingly invite a clearly malign influence into his household in the first place. The fascination is in watching to see how far each character will go, and how deeply they will hurt another in the process. ‘The Sleeping Tiger’, replete with psychobabble that it may be, is a convincing study of the darker side of human nature rarely examined with this level of frankness in British cinema before the 1960s.

With a satisfying script and masterful direction, the performances are all top-notch too. At this stage of his career, Bogarde had rarely been better. Nobody glowered on screen quite as well as he did, and he was already well-versed with playing broken young men holding at bay a torrent of emotion. What he adds in ‘The Sleeping Tiger’ is an animalistic confidence and swagger, that he is clever and talented enough to show cracks in, allowing the audience to know that his tough exterior is merely a charade. His chemistry with Alexis Smith is compelling, and she too signposts the weakening of her defences and her break from a rigid life of dull marital comfort to falling for the temptations of a dangerous stranger with consummate skill. Almost recognising the need to allow the two leads to give the showiest performances, Alexander Knox underplays every scene he’s in, but he is measured and solid.

Look out too for a host of great British acting talent in supporting parts. There’s Hugh Griffith as the police inspector, Harry Towb as Bogarde’s partner in crime, Billie Whitelaw as a receptionist and the dependable Glyn Houston as the housemaid’s unhappy fiancé. The scenes in the nightclub allow for haunting jazz music to aid Clemmons in his seduction of Glenda, enjoyably enhancing the soundtrack.

‘The Sleeping Tiger’ runs to just under an hour and a half and is a breathless gallop, keeping the pace high and the plot forever twisting. It isn’t faultless. There is an implied affection that Esmond’s assistant Carol (Maxine Audley) has for her employer, and to have given that screen time would have added another layer of intrigue for the story, as well as given Audley a more rewarding part. The use of a tiger in artwork in the climatic sequence is also a touch heavy-handed and unnecessary, but it doesn’t diminish the final punch that the film has to offer. Overall, this tight, gripping, clever and brilliantly-performed psychological thriller has much to recommend it. For Losey and Bogarde, it was the start of a special and highly productive professional relationship.

Extra features include a half-hour interview with Bogarde’s official biographer, John Coldstream, who gives an overview of why Bogarde agreed to work with the blacklisted director, as well as a slightly shorter roundup of the movie’s significance by omnipresent film historian Matthew Sweet. Restored for Blu-ray, the black and white print looks better than ever before. You can see every five o’clock shadow hair on Dirk Bogarde’s chin in close-ups. All the better for reading every thought in his character’s mind.

Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Alexis Smith, Alexander Knox, Maxine Audley Director: Joseph Losey (credited as Victor Hanbury) Writers: Harold Buchman, Carl Foreman Certificate: U Duration: 89 mins Released by: Studiocanal Release date: 7th November 2022 Buy ‘The Sleeping Tiger’

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Feature

To understand how I came to love Dirk Bogarde (1921-99) and his unique contribution to British cinema and literature, see ‘Reflecting On ‘Death In Venice’ At 50 – Dirk Bogarde’s Finest Performance‘ in which I join fellow EF reviewer Sam to discuss Luchino Visconti’s 1971 masterpiece and much else besides.

Reviews

Dirk Bogarde’s film career took on many phases. From a clipped and mannered matinee idol to an international actor and star of art house movies, the various versions of Bogarde all have their fans.

Our top five favourites

‘The Servant’ Blu-Ray Review
Dirk Bogarde stars with James Fox and Wendy Craig in Joseph Losey’s 1963 classic of British cinema. The jazz soundtrack and script by Harold Pinter make it one of the coolest films of the Swinging Sixties.

‘The Night Porter’ Blu-Ray Review
Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling star in Liliana Cavani’s troubling and controversial 1974 film. Bogarde plays a former SS officer from a Nazi concentration camp who, years later, sees one of the Jewish survivors in civilian life.

‘Victim‘ Blu-Ray Review
Dirk Bogarde’s career-defining performance was in a 1960 film that led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales. A number of household names had refused the part of a married barrister who has fallen in love with a younger man.

‘Darling‘ Blu-Ray Review
Julie Christie stars as an amoral model on the make in the Swinging Sixties, and Bogarde plays her hapless husband. John Schlesinger directs the 1965 classic.

‘The Damned’ Blu-Ray Review
Dirk Bogarde stars in the subversive 1969 movie, which was his first collaboration with Italian director Luchino Visconti. A few years later they would make the celebrated ‘Death in Venice’ together.

The Rank era

‘Appointment In London’ Blu-Ray Review
Dirk Bogarde stars in an epic WWII British movie from 1953.

‘The Gentle Gunman’ Review
Dirk Bogarde and John Mills star in a 1952 British film about the Irish Troubles.

‘The Blue Lamp‘ Blu-Ray Review
Dirk Bogarde stars in the Ealing Studios classic British movie.

‘For Better, For Worse‘ DVD Review
Light British romantic comedy starring Dirk Bogarde.

See also…

‘The Vision’ DVD Review
One of Dirk Bogarde’s final film roles sees him star with Lee Remick in a strange play by William Nicholson.

‘The Sleeping Tiger’ Blu-ray review. Bogarde marks the beginning of his collaborations with director Joseph Losey in this clever 1954 psychological thriller.

‘Hot Enough For June‘ Blu-Ray Review
Dirk Bogarde stars as a hapless spy in a 1960s James Bond parody.

From the mid-1970s, Bogarde largely gave up acting. He moved to France and, from a remote farmhouse that became his home, embarked upon a second career as an author. He wrote eight volumes of autobiography, which covered everything from his film career to his time serving in the army in the Second World War, and six novels.

Find out more about Dirk Bogarde at the fantastic repository of his life and work, dirkbogarde.co.uk.

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‘They Who Dare’ takes its name from the motto of the Special Air Service (SAS), “Who Dares Wins”. Dirk Bogarde plays Lieutenant Graham, who is put in charge of Operation Anglo. His mission is to bring his men secretly to Rhodes, and to use Greek officers and local guides to help them navigate the difficult terrain. Splitting into two parties, they are tasked with blowing up German airfields. They must then make the difficult journey back to where they came ashore and make good their escape at sea. The problem beyond the difficult topography is that the whole island is teeming with Italian soldiers. In summary, their mission is daring, risky, and almost impossible to successfully pull off. But orders are orders.

At this stage in his career, Dirk Bogarde was a well-established leading man, and one year earlier he had played a Lancaster Bomber in ‘Appointment in London‘. In his mid-30s at the time, gloweringly good-looking and rather saturnine, he was the natural choice to play driven, slightly obsessive young men. His rapport with Denholm Elliott, which carries an often below-the-surface tension for most of the film, is what makes the movie succeed and retains interest in it for fans of their work. There are other notable actors appearing too. It is pleasing to see Bogarde and Elliott share a lot of screen time with a fresh-faced William Russell, some years before he starred in ‘The Great Escape’ and then became the first ever ‘Doctor Who’ companion (alongside Jacqueline Hill) in 1963. There are opportunities for the Greek actors to shine, and Akim Tamiroff is especially memorable as one of the Captains.

The film is directed by Lewis Milestone, a two-time Academy Award-winner, who was behind the camera for ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ (1930), ‘Ocean’s 11’ (1960) and ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ (1962). Although not Milestone’s most stand-out work, it’s clearly the product of an assured and competent director. He makes a relatively small budget go a long way. Behind the scenes, Milestone was a hard taskmaster, ensuring that the actors’ backpacks for carrying their military equipment were loaded with significant weights, believing that they would not pull off acting as if they were heavy. Bogarde later recalled that, “…we all struggled into them and we fell flat on our faces before him.”

One element that can detract from audience’s viewing pleasure is the purple hue that saturates the screen for protracted “day for night” shooting. For the story to make sense, much of it has to be set after dark, but of course filming in such conditions is difficult and expensive, even more so back then. Despite that, the Cypriot locations are well-chosen and add an additional layer of character to the film. There is also the feeling that Robert Westerby’s script has undergone a lot of redrafting, and the action takes on a meandering pace at times. Although Bogarde and Elliott play well-written parts, there is not enough convincing camaraderie among the supporting actors to fully flesh out the film with characters you care about. It is, however, as explained by military historian Saul David in the extra feature interview, a fairly faithful telling of the events of Operation Anglo, and for that, the film deserves more credit than it gets.

If you like action adventure and testosterone-driven (women appear only fleetingly, and invariably stereotypically) World War Two movies from the period just after the war itself, then ‘They Who Dare’ has plenty to recommend it. The fascinating interview with Saul David puts the historical events depicted in the film into context. Restoration work on the film print makes it look sharper than ever before, though as with almost all British films of the era, the colour contrast dates it. I’ve always found Dirk Bogarde a compelling actor, and his central performance, and sparring chemistry with Denholm Elliott ensure that ‘They Who Dare’ can still captivate audiences almost seven decades after it was filmed. ‘They Who Dare’ is a welcome addition to Studiocanal’s Vintage Classics collection.

Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Denholm Elliott, Akim Tamiroff, Gerard Oury, William Russell, Sam Kydd Director: Lewis Milestone Writer: Robert Westerby Certificate: PG Duration: 107 mins Released by: Studiocanal Release date: 5th September 2022 Buy ‘They Who Dare’

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Dirk Bogarde plays Wing-Commander Tim Mason, one of the Lancaster Bombers who flies missions over Germany. Despite the short life expectancy of the pilots, Mason has successfully completed eighty-seven missions, and tells his superiors that he will stop once he reaches ninety. However, they are concerned for his mental state given the toll the flights take on pilots, and for the impact that his death would have on company morale. Inevitably, the order comes from above to ground him. But then fate places an opportunity in Mason’s hands to take to the skies again, even though doing so would be to disobey orders…

‘Appointment in London’ was both written and scored by John Wooldridge, a former RAF pilot who had in real life flown an incredible 108 missions. The film is based on his experiences. The extra feature ‘Appointment with my Father’ is a fifteen-minute interview with Wooldridge’s son Hugh, who gives an account of how extraordinarily brave and talented his father was. Tragically, he died far too young in a car accident not many years after ‘Appointment in London’ was released. The film is a testament to Wooldridge’s achievements, and to his intention to show cinema-goers what it was like to be a Bomber Command pilot. The film certainly achieves on that count, with climactic sequences following a British raid on Germany. The film also dramatises the role of the Pathfinders – planes that would seek out the targets and direct the bombers accurately. In the other featurette ‘Flight of the Pathfinders’, Will Iredale goes into some detail about how the innovative creation of the Pathfinders turned British failure in the skies into success during the course of the war.

The movie succeeds in vividly presenting the real-life heroics of Bomber Command during the Second World War, and it does so with good attention to detail. Although he had been in the army and not a pilot, Bogarde had served during the war, and undoubtedly the film would have brought back challenging experiences (see several volumes of his memoirs) that he drew upon to ensure that his character of Tim Mason is fully-rounded. Director Philip Leacock probably deserves some of the credit for that, since ‘Appointment in London’ comes after ‘The Gentle Gunman’, which was not Bogarde’s finest hour. Star and director would be reunited a few years later for ‘The Spanish Gardener’.

‘Appointment in London’, which takes its name from an invitation bestowed on two of the pilots to receive honours from the King at Buckingham Palace – if only they live long enough to keep it – follows plot lines that are fairly similar for movies about conflict. The male-dominated cast is laddish and energetic, save for star Dirk Bogarde who is in his comfort zone of playing aloof and repressed. Some of them are missing wives and girlfriends, and this gets Greeno (Bryan Forbes) into trouble. But then a chance meeting with Naval Officer Eve Canyon (Dinah Sheridan) gives Mason a renewed focus on life after he retires from active duties, which is increasingly pertinent after every loss of a man under his command. Actors of the calibre of Bryan Forbes and Ian Hunter play secondary characters. Adaptable Australian talent Bill Kerr makes a welcome appearance as one of the pilots in a nod to the debt the Allies owed to Commonwealth nations for their support.

Though the film concentrates its attention on the activities of the Allies, the Germans are depicted, shouting shrill orders from a control room as the Lancaster Bombers gradually take out their targets. But they are never drawn into the action. In this way, the film is more about the psychological consequences of being involved in conflict, and the camaraderie between the pilots. Naturally, some of the filmmaking techniques feel dated now. Scenes of superior officers explaining the mission to the assembled pilots is information-heavy and overlong (though it does briefly feature Bogarde’s long-term partner, Anthony Forwood). The model work is good, but especially in high-definition, the artifice is clear. There wasn’t a lot of money around in those dour post-war years, so a limited budget had to go a long way. Ultimately what matters is the story that is being told and the talent involved in its telling. There, the film succeeds and retains our interest.

The black and white film stock of ‘Appointment in London’ looks crisp and clean in Blu-ray, and the high-definition accentuates the emotional reactions of the players, bringing out subtle details in their performances. It’s beautifully lit too, with effective use of shadows, half-light and night shoots. The sequences on board the Lancaster Bombers are successfully immersive, placing the audience in the thick of the action. As film-making techniques improved, movies such as ‘Top Gun’, with extensive and impressive aerial sequences, could be made. Philip Leacock’s contribution to cinema with the impressive ‘Appointment in London’ was a step along that road. It is released now as part of Studiocanal’s Vintage Classics collection, and will especially appeal to aficionados of authentic WWII films. Bogarde’s magnetic lead performance – itself a stepping stone to the greatness he would later achieve – is sure to appeal to fans of his work.

Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Ian Hunter, Dinah Sheridan, Bryan Forbes, Bill Kerr Director: Philip Leacock Writers: John Wooldridge, Robert Westerby Certificate: 12 Duration: 96 mins Released by: Studiocanal Release date: 27th June 2022 Buy ‘Appointment in London’

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The chances are that this film wouldn’t satisfy those with the strongest feelings on either side of the conflict, and comes across as naive or even sentimental to anyone in the middle. That said, it’s not without its curiosities, and lead roles for two of British cinemas brightest ever stars, John Mills and Dirk Bogarde, certainly go in its favour.

The screen idols play brothers in conflict. They have travelled from Ireland to London during the Blitz. Terence (Mills) has grown weary of terrorism as a method of fighting for Irish independence. His younger brother Matthew (Bogarde) is more hot-headed and idealistic, and is ashamed of what he sees as his brother’s betrayal. However, when tasked with leaving a bomb in the London Underground, Matthew has a moment of conscience when he sees children playing next to the ticking suitcase. This invites trouble on the family that follows them back to their native Ireland.

‘The Gentle Gunman’ came at a crossroads in Dirk Bogarde’s career. He’d already played a troubled young man for director Basil Dearden in ‘The Blue Lamp’ two years earlier, so in some ways he was an obvious choice for the part of Matthew. A couple of years later he would win the recurring role of Dr Simon Sparrow in ‘Doctor in the House’. His performance in ‘The Gentle Gunman’ seems to find him running out of steam playing rebels, and he spends much of the film sulking and angrily glowering, without finding a way to craft a compelling character. I say that as someone who has enormously admired his talent for over twenty years. It doesn’t help that his Irish accent is woefully bad, though nowhere near as off-target as John Mills’ distractingly odd attempt. Much of the rest of the cast are from genuine Irish or Northern Ireland backgrounds, and they supply the veracity that is missing from the leads.

However, it isn’t merely the stars’ accents that don’t ring true. There is an attempt to add some levity to a heavy piece by bookending it with a gentle rivalry between the Irish Dr Brannigan (Joseph Tomelty) and the British Henry Truthome (Gilbert Harding). The resulting broad stereotypes flatter neither nation and raise few smiles.

Despite our misgivings over the authenticity of the era the film depicts, it is not without its successes. The locations are well-chosen and look rugged in crisp black and white. Although the plot is a little muddled, it nevertheless engages viewers for an hour and a half. It also successfully presents difficult moral dilemmas and issues such as national sovereignty in ways that are accessible to a wide audience. Director Basil Dearden for the most part keeps the action tight. Some sequences, especially those based in the London Underground at the start of the film, are tense and expertly-handled.

Although neither star would have been likely to relish talking about the film in later interviews, it’s always time well-spent when you’re in the company of legends like John Mills and Dirk Bogarde. The latter was at his most devastatingly handsome. On Blu-ray, the picture quality is impressively crisp, and there is great contrast between the light and shadows.

A half-hour extra on the disc is a closer look at ‘The Gentle Gunman’ with film writers Matthew Sweet and Phuong Le, who cover a lot of ground and provide some intriguing background information about the making of the movie.

Cast: Dirk Bogarde, John Mills, Robert Beatty, Elizabeth Sellars, Barbara Mullen Director: Basil Dearden Writer: Roger MacDougall Certificate: PG Duration: 86 mins Released by: Studiocanal Release date: 7th March 2022 Buy ‘The Gentle Gunman’

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The film marked the first collaboration between Visconti and English star Dirk Bogarde. A few years later they would make the critically-acclaimed ‘Death in Venice’ together.

‘The Damned’ is set in Germany in the early 1930s just as Hitler has become Chancellor and a brutal ideology grips and fundamentally alters the nation. The film depicts the fictional Essenbeck family, wealthy industrialists and members of the old aristocracy. Their steelworks is of interest the Third Reich for its use in creating munitions. Yet the family is dysfunctional and riven with jealousies and distrust.

Mixing elements of ‘Atlas Shrugged’ and Shakespearean tragedy, Visconti’s movie depicts the inner squabbles, feuds, secrets and murders of a distinctly unpleasant elite, spanning just over two and a half hours. Using his signatures of extensive location work and immaculate attention to detail in period settings, costumes and props, ‘The Damned’ is certainly a feast for the eyes. However, the unrelenting nastiness of the movie leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

There are plenty of inferences made to historical characters – Dirk Bogarde and Ingrid Thulin as Friedrich Bruckmann and Sophie von Essenbeck, the heads of the dynasty, echo Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun as much as Claudius and Gertrude from Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. Despite collaborating on a murder, they emerge as perhaps the most likeable of all of the characters. The ostensible star is Helmut Berger as Martin, who is a kind of sexually depraved Hamlet. Depicted cross-dressing and imitating Marlene Dietrich’s famous ‘The Blue Angel’ routine in the opening sequences, he later rapes children and his own mother, before fulfilling his destiny and becoming a fully-fledged member of the SS.

Although Visconti is undoubtedly a fine storyteller, the absence of a single redeeming main character can leave viewers feeling isolated. The running time, and use of long, lingering shots and protracted moments of quietude also contribute to a feeling that ‘The Damned’ starts to sag in the middle under its own weight. There is no reprieve for viewers, no levity to offer respite from the unremittingly bleak historical setting and nauseating characters. It’s hard to care too much about any of their fates (save for that of Charlotte Rampling’s Elizabeth). In his memoirs, Dirk Bogarde recorded how Visconti changed the script to allow his lover Helmut Berger more screen-time, which also meant less for Bogarde. Since Berger’s Martin is the most evil character (quite a feat when you consider that family member Aschenbach, played by Helmut Griem, is an actual SS officer), we spend most of the time following the complete moral collapse of an irredeemable monster.

Despite being heavy-going and unsubtle, ‘The Damned’ boasts many fine performances and memorable sequences. Although he had already made classics such as ‘The Servant’ and ‘Darling’, his collaboration with Visconti cemented Dirk Bogarde’s reputation as one of Britain’s finest screen actors and an art house cinema legend. He is perfectly cast opposite Swedish film star Ingrid Thulin. Charlotte Rampling (with whom Bogarde would later collaborate, with the same theme of sexual depravity among Nazis, in ‘The Night Porter’) is excellent if underused as the doomed wife of the steelwork’s vice-president, whose end mercifully occurs off-screen. The sequence that lingers in the memory after viewing is a meeting of the brownshirts at a hotel. It later descends into a gay orgy. This time Visconti’s languid shots of handsome young men, some in lingerie, adds to the sense of foreboding, that the time they are trying to hold back is about to spectacularly end. The arrival of the SS in the town provides the inevitable yet shocking interruption.

In the final analysis, ‘The Damned’ is one of those films one has to be in the mood for. Brilliant in parts, yet flawed and disjointed, its ideas laid on with a trowel, it’s impossible to emerge from it without feeling a degree of disgust. The relentless browbeating over the sexual immorality of the Nazis is also wearying. There is a great movie within the concept, but in its final execution, ‘The Damned’ impresses, appals and alienates in roughly equal measure.

The new 2K restoration is highly impressive – the colours even in low light are rich and vibrant, and the sound and picture quality is sharp and clean. Extras include an archive feature on the making of ‘The Damned’ which follows Visconti around as he is shooting the movie, and contemporary interviews with Helmut Berger, Ingrid Thulin and Charlotte Rampling. An up-to-date extra is a conversation with Italian film expert Stefano Albertini who offers incisive analysis of the film and its place in Visconti’s canon.

Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Griem, Helmut Berger, Renaud Verley, Umberto Orsini, Charlotte Rampling Director: Luchino Visconti Writer: Nicola Badalucco, Enrico Mediali, Luchino Visconti Certificate: 18 Duration: 157 mins Released by: The Criterion Collection for Sony Pictures Release date: 25th October 2021 Buy ‘The Damned’

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The script by Harold Pinter gives audiences some idea of what to expect. Best known as a playwright, Pinter evidences his theatrical background with a screenplay that takes place over very few locations. Most of the action is set inside Tony’s swanky Chelsea apartment. The icy script combines with Joseph Losey’s menacing direction and the crisp, black and white film stock that makes effective use of shadows and darkness. The end result, with a sleazy jazz score by John Dankworth thrown in, is a pressure cooker environment and a claustrophobic, uncomfortable, yet spellbinding viewing experience.

Young aristocrat Tony (James Fox) moves into his London apartment as he plans his future. He hires a manservant, and Barrett (Dirk Bogarde) arrives punctually. Impressed, Tony hires him, and finds Barrett useful, especially for bringing him drinks. Discord descends on the household with the arrival of Tony’s girlfriend Susan (Wendy Craig). In one memorable scene, Susan shows her ignorance in front of Tony’s friends over the definition of ‘poncho’, and she is also rude to Barrett and suspicious of his motives, which offends Tony’s good-mannered sensibilities. However, when Barrett brings his ‘sister’ Vera (Sarah Miles) into the mix, ostensibly as a maid, the traps being laid for Tony to fall into become ever-clearer to the viewer, who in turn begins to understand Susan’s instinctive animosity towards Barrett. Pinter and Losey keep on turning the screw as Barrett forces Tony to become ever-more reliant upon him, as the roles in their destructive relationship steadily invert.

Pinter’s screenplay makes for a clever psychological drama. The character of Barrett is surely one of the most fascinating in cinema history. Brought to life by an actor of the calibre of Dirk Bogarde, Barrett is truly unforgettable. Unusually adopting a Manchester accent, Bogarde creates a unique character in his considerable repertoire, and instils in Barrett a history and a background that feels authentic and credible. It is his signposting of Barrett’s malevolence that is so ingenious, even in his quieter moments during the early sequences. When he first meets Tony, he is standing over him, looking down at him, casting silent judgement on the young man who has fallen asleep in the afternoon after having had too much to drink. It takes a special kind of venomous spirit to prey upon a decent person’s weaknesses and encourage them down a route to destruction. Achieving as much through quiet subtlety is a stunning artistic achievement by Bogarde.

The rest of the cast are equal to Bogarde’s masterclass in insidious villainy. James Fox was a newcomer to the big screen at the time, let alone to leading performances, but he is the perfect marriage of stuffy yet vulnerable and naive. Just as Bogarde very carefully carves out turning points in his character’s development, so too does Fox, and the last moment we see him in the film is so far removed from the ambitious young man who employs Barrett in the first place that he really takes the audience on quite the journey with him. It was the start of a long and successful film career for Fox.

Although they have less screen time than the two men, the leading women make a strong impression too. Wendy Craig’s Susan is arguably the character audiences change their view of the most as the events of the film unfold. Her initial reserve and stiffness, we later learn, is a cover for her insecurity and her concern for Tony’s well-being. In not always giving Tony what he wants, she loves him truly. Sarah Miles plays Vera, undoubtedly the most intriguing character, and someone whose background and true identity we are never quite allowed to glimpse. Yet Miles creates an intriguing seductress, prettily packaged in a pretence of innocence. Is she ultimately setting out to destroy two men? The unresolved enigma of Vera creates the talking points for audiences after seeing the movie. Losey gets the best out of his remarkably talented and mostly young cast. Blacklisted from Hollywood, Losey was their loss and the British film industry’s gain.

Ultimately, ‘The Servant’ is a close-up examination of a poisonous male relationship, and the catastrophic influence manipulative people can hold over those too weak and naive to see clearly what’s right in front of them. ‘The Servant’ makes for deeply unsettling viewing, so much so that it’s one of those films you have to be in the right mood to watch. It takes you to some dark places. Nevertheless, it’s undoubtedly an exceptionally fine cinematic achievement, and this loving restoration is testament to the esteem it holds and reputation is has rightly earned.

Now restored to 4K, ‘The Servant’ looks more stunning than ever before. The level of detail is such that it’s possible to make out the titles on Tony’s bookcases. One is a dustcover copy of Vladimir Nabokov’s ‘Pale Fire’ that’s probably a detail missed on lower resolutions. That level of visual clarity also accentuates the subtlety of the masterful performances, especially in close-ups.

There are some great new extra features that will satisfy devoted film buffs available on the 4K collector’s edition Blu-ray. I especially enjoyed Adam Scovell’s location guide, tracing almost all of the places in London where the movie was made. Tony’s salubrious Chelsea apartment is much-unchanged in the sixty years since the film was shot. Matthew Sweet and Phuong Le provide a video essay, and there are interviews with surviving cast members Wendy Craig, James Fox and Sarah Miles. Bogarde’s biographer John Coldstream talks about the celebrated late actor. Impressively, the discs have the option of watching the feature in either 1.66 or 1.77 aspect ratio.

‘The Servant’ is currently enjoying a limited theatrical release, and is available on 4K UHD Blu-ray, DVD and digital from 20th September.

Cast: Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Wendy Craig, Sarah Miles Director: Joseph Losey Writer: Harold Pinter Certificate: 12 Duration: 114 mins Released by: StudioCanal Release date: 20th September 2021 Buy ‘The Servant’

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The multi BAFTA award-winning film, which has been meticulously restored as part of STUDIOCANAL’s ‘Vintage Classics’ collection, will premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival on 19th August, followed by a cinema release on 10th September and a 4K UHD collector’s edition Blu-Ray, DVD & Digital release on 20th September.

Based on the screenplay by revered playwright Harold Pinter (‘The Homecoming’, ‘The Birthday Party’), ‘The Servant’ stars celebrated British actor Sir Dirk Bogarde. The former matinee idol later became a cinema art house icon (appearing in masterpieces of European film including ‘The Night Porter’ and ‘Death in Venice’). In ‘The Servant’, he appears alongside a fresh-faced James Fox (‘A Passage to India’) of the Fox dynasty of actors, Sarah Miles (‘Ryan’s Daughter’) and Wendy Craig (‘The Mind Benders’ and situation comedy ‘Butterflies’).

Cited by Bong Joon Ho as one of five films that influenced his masterpiece ‘Parasite’, ‘The Servant’ is considered ahead of its time for its ambitious cinematography and its exploration of class and sexual politics in 1960s Britain. It boasts stunning cinematography from Ealing Comedies’ Douglas Slocombe, a fantastic soundtrack by composer John Dankworth (‘Darling’) and is considered by many to be one of the greatest British films of the last century.

Available to own on 20th September, or via pre-order now the special UHD collector’s edition Blu-ray presented in both 1.66 and 1.77 aspect ratios, the new release offers exciting bonus content including a brand-new video essay with Matthew Sweet and Phuong Le, a new location featurette with Adam Scovell, a Richard Ayoade interview with James Fox, plus interviews and commentaries with cast, crew and industry experts.

Pre-order Joesph Losey’s ‘The Servant‘.

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Sam: Dirko? Oh good question. I don’t think I was all that aware of Dirk Bogarde before about 2001 – when a very interesting BBC documentary covered his whole life, based on an archive of home cine footage. I thought: what a remarkable man. He was a 1950s matinee idol, yet guarded and mysterious; he was an intelligent actor and a skilled writer, too, with a complex private life. I wanted to know more. How about you?

Greg: I was aware of Dirk Bogarde before his death. The first time I registered him was watching ‘A Bridge Too Far’, Richard Attenborough’s remarkable 1977 WWII epic about the failure of Operation Market Garden in Arnhem. I was only a boy, but my goodness it gripped me, and it introduced me to a whole range of movie stars. Everybody from Robert Redford and James Caan to Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier. Sean Connery was the only one I recognised, from James Bond of course.

Sam: Same experience here. Dirk has quite a fleeting part in it, doesn’t he? Anglo-American movies – not his bag by that point in his career. He was flirting with European directors by then, wasn’t he?

Greg: Yes, and he regretted doing it. I later learned from his memoirs (which we’ll come to!) that Bogarde hated every second of his time on ‘A Bridge Too Far’, but his small role was enough to make me a fan! When I heard he’d died, I was in the third year of my time as a student in Glasgow. I can still vividly remember watching his obituary on the BBC news bulletin in the squalid little kitchen of the flat I lived in.

Sam: You can see it now in your mind’s eye…

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The action takes place in Vienna in 1957, just over a decade after the end of World War Two. Former SS officer Max (Bogarde), now determined to lead a quiet life, “like a dormouse”, holds down a job at an exclusive hotel that, despite its aura of gentility, provides sexual pleasure for those guests who seek it. When her musician husband has a piece performed in Vienna, Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) comes to stay at the hotel. She recognises Max immediately. She is the survivor of a Nazi concentration camp where Max had tortured and abused her during the war.

The story does not follow the expected path of the victim’s horror at coming face-to-face with her abuser from the past. Instead, it takes an even darker turn and examines an awakened sexual lust in both main characters, partially explained through flashbacks. In order to survive in the concentration camp, Lucia had made herself sexually attractive to the SS officers, appealing especially to their kinky desires. Max in particular had developed a strong lust for her. In opening up painful memories of the past, their chance meeting years later also unearths hidden, unspeakable passions that lock their fates together. For Max’s life is not that of a dormouse – a group of Nazis with similar shameful pasts are on his tail. They are trying to cover up the evidence of their crimes against humanity. A survivor like Lucia appearing out of the past could send them all to the gallows. His former Nazi friends and Lucia come to rely on Max’s loyalty for their very survival.

The Night Porter is undeniably a phenomenally powerful film. Once you have seen it, you can never forget it. There are compelling reasons why it has come to be considered a cult classic, and there are factors that bend enormously in its favour. The two lead actors are outstanding individually, but their chemistry, though twisted and almost incomprehensible in its destructive passion, brings the story to life and keeps audiences spellbound. Although he lived for another 25 years after the film, there were few further acting credits to Bogarde’s name. He had become highly selective about film projects, and tended to make small budget independent films with artistic merit, such as The Night Porter with Liliana Cavani, and Death in Venice with Luchino Visconti. As such, although his earlier film career was more lucrative, it was in the 1970s that he produced his best work. The Night Porter is certainly Bogarde as you have never seen him before – going so far as to have his nipple sucked in one scene. Charlotte Rampling was conversely in the first decade of a long career as a major character actor. Watching two incredibly magnetic performers act out a complex relationship with an ever-changing dynamic is thrilling.

On the other hand, there’s no escaping how sordid and uncomfortable The Night Porter is as a viewing experience. It certainly leaves a lingering bad taste in the mouth. The way in which it captures the power an abuser has over his victim, and the control he is able to exert, rings psychologically true. So too does the depiction of the perversity of many of the SS officers. What’s disturbing is the lingering weight of the scenes, and the attention to detail. Cavani is forcing us to see, and to consider, the very worst of humanity, whilst at times dressing it up as an unconventional sexual relationship between apparently consenting adults. The physical damage they inflict upon one another is wearying to watch – at times the violence becomes too much to bear.

There are a few details that don’t entirely ring true. A Cabaret-inspired scene (the Liza Minnelli film was new at the time) involving a severed head in a box seems too fantastical even for the depravity of Nazi concentration camps. But since it is told in flashback as Max recounts his story to an elderly hotel guest, we are invited to wonder if he is embellishing the past, or even inventing it, acting as an unreliable narrator. Rampling recounts in an interview in the extra features that Bogarde had come to her with a script that needed work, but had the essence of a good idea. In the final analysis, The Night Porter does have a slightly disjointed, mechanical feel to the storytelling, the result of a script that had undergone numerous drafts.

Those reservations aside, The Night Porter taken as a whole is an effective film. It is shocking and provocative, and enters territory that had, until it was made, been considered off limits as an affront to human decency to explore. Max and Lucia are stunningly created. Even if people and events surrounding them aren’t entirely fleshed out, audiences only care about the central, inexorably tragic relationship between the central characters.

Troubling, and raising more questions about human nature than it answers, The Night Porter is nevertheless stylish, intriguing and, where it becomes darkest and most dangerous, beguiling. It might reasonably be thought that in the near half-century since The Night Porter was created, the controversy around it would have waned. Perhaps this was the case for a time. But in today’s ultra-censorious, intolerant and offence-mongering culture, I would be surprised if The Night Porter’s return on Blu-ray doesn’t subject it, and those involved, to puritanical threats of cancellation. Yet art must be allowed the freedom to express the unpalatable and the unthinkable. It’s only by raising difficult questions that we can remember how best to respond to them.

For fans who have seen the film on DVD, they will know that the prints they were transferred from were in poor condition. This 4K Blu-ray release is stunning in its remarkable restoration. The picture quality is crisp and the colours are vivid. This is the best quality anyone has seen the film in since it was first released. A thirty-seven minute interview with director and writer Liliana Cavani, recorded in 2020, comprises one extra feature. She talks in Italian, but there are English subtitles, and she takes viewers through the history of the film from inception to critical reaction, with behind-the-scenes photographs to embellish it. There is also a half-hour contemporary interview with Charlotte Rampling, who speaks fondly but honestly about her late co-star Dirk Bogarde, and how he brought her into the project all those years ago.

Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Philippe Leroy, Gabriele Ferzetti, Giuseppe Addobbati, Isa Miranda Director: Liliana Cavani Writer: Liliana Cavani Released by: Cult Films Certificate: 18 Duration: 119 mins Release date: 30th November 2020 Buy The Night Porter on Blu-ray now

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I own at least that number of books already (if I could be bothered to count them). Is there any use in buying new volumes I won’t live to get around to? How much time should I expend discovering the classics I missed at school? Am I morally obliged to read every novel Dostoevsky wrote? Is it OK to sometimes snack on junk food and indulge in a delicious crime thriller? And how do I hone in on the ever-diminishing pool of volumes as the sands of time ebb away? Isn’t being receptive to new titles and shifting tastes essential to widening one’s knowledge?

The increasingly pressing need to be highly selective in reading matter left me amenable to dipping my toe into the world of Audible – the vast online library whose virtual echoing corridors and limitless weightless bookcases contain myriad titles from every genre to experience in a slightly different way.

But is it the same?

Is it the same to read the words on a page or a screen, intuit emphases and imagine the author’s tone of voice as it is to have the words inserted directly into your ears with the narrative decisions imposed on you by a reader? If so, do the differences matter? Is one experience to be preferred to the other? Are they different, but of equal value?

The advantages I already knew were that I could ‘read’, and dispatch a good few chapters during ‘dead’ time – washing up, driving, walking to the supermarket, the dreaded chore of cleaning the bathroom… Filling such mundanities with literature is a boon for the sanity. As a bit of a technophobe, preferring the physical world in general, I was pleased to find the app easy to use and navigate (though you can also connect your Audible account to your Amazon account and use it through your laptop/computer). It’s possible to review titles in your library, to recommend, or not, to other readers. If your spouse walks in to ask about the milk supply situation, there’s a handy button to rewind thirty seconds and listen back.

So far so good. But my virtual shelves were empty.

Where to begin?

Favourite authors

In choosing where to spend my first few Audible credits, I opted for strong and often disputatious voices from non-fiction, since (at least at the moment), current affairs, politics, science and history form the bulk of my reading. Having enormously enjoyed Douglas Murray’s The Madness of Crowds, a witty and ruthlessly forensic trip through the trigger points of gender and identity politics, and with some awareness of the author’s erudition and articulacy in verbal as well as written forms, it was the first one I tried. I was not disappointed. The gathering of pace when (stripped of melody) the author recites Nicki Minaj’s lyrics coaxing us to ‘look at her butt’ in his epigraph sets the scene, as does the elongation of the final word when he announces, ‘Chapter One: Gay’. You know you’re in the safe hands of a great communicator, and I found traces of irony and humour I had somehow missed when I read it.

Canadian academic Professor Jordan Peterson has often suggested that the themes he writes and speaks about are examined in great detail in his first book, Maps of Meaning. But, he warns, the book can be impenetrable for casual readers, and suggests the audio version is more accessible. Having never read the book, I took the opportunity to find out for myself. At first I was on firm footing, as the author recounted his increasing dissatisfaction with a collectivist worldview. Piece of cake, I thought to myself, pleased with my ability to keep up until forty-five minutes in, at which point the language becomes more complex and academic, which strained my cognitive abilities as I juggled every pot and pan in the kitchen whilst cooking up a Chicken Katsu Curry. There’s something soothing about the author’s voice: I will persevere in less stressful circumstances. I switch back to Murray. Audible remembers my place.

Recommended for you

Once you’ve purchase a few titles the recommendations drop in when you select ‘Discover’. There’s a version of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago narrated by Jordan Peterson [edit: just the introduction – the main text is narrated by Ignat Solzhenitsyn – the author’s son]. My heart-rate quickens. Solzhenitsyn is the vital twentieth century Russian dissident who wrote brilliantly about the corruption and unsustainability of the USSR. Essential reading for Cold War enthusiasts. I have absorbed several of his titles, but this one I’ve been meaning to get around to… Let’s pop it on the wish list.

Hearing from historical figures

I was set a challenge when my in-laws bought me a brick for Christmas. Unwrapping the paper, I discovered that the gift wasn’t a lump of masonry but a hardback copy of Andrew Roberts’ biography of Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny. It weighs in a one thousand pages. Holding it up in bed to read is a health hazard: if I nod off it might crush me. Besides, my arms aren’t toned enough to support its weight for more than two pages at a time. Should I opt for the Audible version, read by actor Stephen Thorne (I know that name – he played many a Doctor Who baddie back in the old days)? No, I’m enjoying the challenge of getting through ten pages a day.

However, I hear from the UK’s two most successful post-war Prime Ministers, who both lasted in the role for over a decade, and who remain loved by some, and incontrovertibly controversial to others. What’s more, they read their own memoirs. Tony Blair, A Journey can be heard from start to finish in little over sixteen hours. That’s only one day assume you do nothing else after breakfast and before bed. He puts his case strongly, not least on the foreign intervention that blew his credibility. Margaret Thatcher, the autobiography (comprising The Path to Power and The Downing Street Years), comes in at under thirteen hours. How different her voice sounds outside of the ruthless world of Westminster and politics. Softer, more feminine. In listening to their accounts of their time in office, unexpected questions can be answered. A conversation with a friend about the origins of Mrs Thatcher’s philosemitism remained a mystery. That is until listening to her recall that, at the outbreak of the war, her family took in Jewish friends from Germany before they could settle with relatives in South America. Mrs Thatcher describes her beautiful seventeen year-old friend Edith, and learns of the world in Hitler’s Germany she has left behind. That the childhood moment makes the final edit reveals its importance.

The classics

How many classics should a keen reader aim to take in per year? One? There’s enough Dickens to last decades at that rate. Six? Is there time for much else? And can one go to one’s grave having never read a word of Joyce, or Thackeray, or all of the Brontes? Next on my list is Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native. I look forward to hearing it through the honeyed tones of Alan Rickman. I also have my eye on Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall narrated by Simon Slater, Booker Prize Winner and modern classic that it is. But I’m part-way through Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf. The narrator’s voice is familiar. American. I can’t place him. Peter Weller. Wasn’t he from The Jam? No, that was Paul. I have to look him up. It’s RoboCop! It turns out he has a serious body of work behind him, and his gravelly voice is perfect for Hesse. To a child of the 80s, whatever else he does, he will always be RoboCop. Sorry, Peter. And speaking of favourite actors…

Dirk Bogarde

He was the biggest British movie star over half a century ago, but he’s well on the way to being forgotten now, just over two decades after his death. He largely gave up acting in the 1970s and turned to writing, churning out seven autobiographical memoirs and several books. I’ve been working my way through them for over a decade. And yes! Audible has the rights to the audiobooks recorded by Bogarde himself. Cleared for Take-Off is the sixth volume and recounts the author’s time during World War Two, a lot of it harrowing. Yet there’s a psychological truth unusual for actorly memoirs. Bogarde was a private, inscrutable man. There’s much in what he doesn’t say. Maybe that’s why I find his voice fascinating.

Excuse me, do you have a copy of…?

As a wide reader, I was pleased to discover a dizzying selection of books, and not many titles I failed to turn up. As an enthusiast for Ian Fleming’s James Bond titles, I was pleased to find modern recordings by renowned actors including David Tennant, Toby Stephens and Lucy Fleming (Ian’s niece!) I even found several versions of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, which I studied as a classicist. Choose your narrator! The world is quite metaphorically my oyster.

The conversion is complete

I knew I had been won over to the Audible cause when I started listening to the books in bed. Whatever kind of day I’ve had, and regardless of how heavy the night has been, I always settle down at night with some reading, or rather, with a book. Else sleep is elusive. Earplugs and a low light have the same effect as reading, without the eye strain, so generally I last longer, which means galloping through more pages. Every time I settle down, the bookmark remembers exactly where I was, and picks up from the place I left it.

Once the pandemic recedes and our pre-2020 lives, with some adjustments, creak back into being, I will be listening to audiobooks on my commute too, and filling in all dead time connecting to the voices that offer some guidance, or even just amusement, as I navigate through life. Now I have more time for books than ever before. Bibliomaniacs rejoice, and join Audible.

Audible is £7.99/month after 30 days of a free trial, and membership renews automatically, but you can cancel anytime. Signing up for that membership plan entitles you to download one book per month, but there are other membership options for more voracious readers. Head over to your Amazon account, or see more at Audible.co.uk. 

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